


Splinter

by IdleLeaves



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-13
Updated: 2004-09-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 23:26:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IdleLeaves/pseuds/IdleLeaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Certain experiences can be neither forgotten nor reversed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Splinter

All that's the same, it seems, is the impending war. The rest is only similar, a skewed reflection of Last Time. He remembers, now; the recollections have been coming back to him in fits and starts. It's almost like he didn't live through the years in between, sometimes; they exist in fragments - splinters - of hopelessness, want, determination, desperation.

It's broken, he thinks, into pieces. In the corners of the old flat, where the lamp-light didn't reach, the darkness had been comforting; it blocked out the rest of the universe, bringing it down to what mattered--the body beside him, heartbeat against his chest, breath on his neck. Here, the corners mark the boundaries of his world, not the centre of it; a cage, not a cocoon, meant to contain, not to protect.

When his calloused hands touch cracking edges and chipped paint, he can't feel the promise of moving up and moving on. Nothing more than artifacts, these walls, of what had once been considered strong but had become tired, grey, weary.

Like themselves.

He's rarely alone when his eyes snap open in pitch-black, pulse hammering; shadows press down upon him, curling over him, but the warmth at his side reminds him that this is Now and not Then, that this time around the tale may - must - have a different end. There's relief in hazel eyes when the dream-haze finally ebbs and gives way to reality.

Certain experiences can be neither forgotten nor reversed; scarred by time and circumstance, he understands this, now. He sees it in Remus, but he feels it in himself. Dawn may, and will, creep forward, but the light through torn curtains never reaches far enough.


End file.
